The Charlotte News
Wednesday, November 7, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Communist negotiators in Korea had proposed a new buffer zone similar to that proposed by the U.N. negotiators, but with key differences, leading the U.N. negotiators to turn it down, with the proviso that they would talk about it further the following day. The proposal was that the ceasefire line would be drawn in accordance with current battle lines, but would not be adjusted unless both sides agreed to the adjustment, whereas the allies had proposed that the current battle lines be appropriately adjusted with changing circumstances of battle until the final ceasefire was agreed, thus placing time pressure on accession regarding the remaining issues, administration of the ceasefire, exchange of prisoners and recommendations for governments. As it was, according to the U.N. spokesman, the proposal would be a de facto ceasefire, which could delay the ultimate resolution indefinitely.
In ground action, allied troops attacked through the mud to recapture one of three hills northwest of Yonchon, which had been lost to the Chinese since Sunday. The enemy did not put up much of a fight. U.N. infantrymen were driven from advanced positions on the western front, but then quickly counterattacked and pushed the enemy back to their original lines. Rain dampened action elsewhere within the sector, as artillery duels were engaged, with the U.N. trying to soften up the Chinese still holding the two peaks seized Sunday.
In Paris, Britain, France and the U.S. were expected to reveal this night important new proposals for easing the tensions between East and West, believed to entail a census of the world's atomic weapons, something to which the U.S. had to this point objected.
The President this night would broadcast a foreign policy message to the country and the Big Three plan would likely be tailored to this pronouncement.
In Moscow's Red Square this date, Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, speaking in commemoration of the 34th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, told cheering throngs that Russia did not contemplate attacking the U.S. or any other country, but rather intended to strengthen peace and cooperation among nations. He contrasted this policy with "the ruling circles of the United States" and their "policy of aggression".
In London, the Conservative Government, by way of a speech by the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, R. A. Butler, to Commons, announced that it had decided to cut Britain's spending abroad by 980 million dollars per year to halt the drain on its gold-dollar reserves, which had fallen 320 million dollars just in October. Imports would be cut, including food and strategic materials for stockpiling, necessitating that the ration for some foods might have to be cut as well as imposed on some of the foodstuffs presently not rationed.
House investigators looking into two delayed tax fraud cases out of North Carolina heard from a special agent in charge of the Charlotte office of the IRB intelligence division for the second straight day, transpiring in executive session. No details were available as to the substance of the statement.
Republicans picked up a seat in the House by capturing all four special elections held the previous day, but lost their 68-year grip on Philadelphia when a Democratic mayor was elected, defeating Republican Baptist minister Daniel Poling. A Republican mayor was elected in Little Rock, Arkansas, for the first time in 64 years.
In Washington, Robert Ramspeck, chairman of the Civil Service Commission, speaking before the Washington Trade Association Executives, said that he found it strange that business had not shared the moral blame with Government officials involved in shady deals and that smearing of Government workers was a "national problem of the gravest kind", making it difficult to find qualified Government employees. He urged businessmen to take the lead in combating unfair criticism of civil servants and in helping the Government obtain the highest type of workers.
In Milwaukee, three men, two of whom were armed with submachine guns, held up a branch bank during a heavy snowstorm this date and escaped with an estimated $97,000. The two armed men stood on either side of the door as the third man jumped the railing and ran behind the row of cashiers' cages, scooping the money into a white bedsheet as one of the other accomplices counted off the seconds until reaching zero, at which time the trio left the bank and jumped into a car at the doorway, whereupon the driver, a fourth man, drove them away. No shots were fired.
In Bloomington, Indiana, roads were hazardous and a man due in court on a reckless driving charge telephoned the court from Indianapolis, saying that he believed he should not drive to Bloomington, whereupon the justice of the peace accepted his guilty plea by telephone, fined him a dollar plus costs and told him to send the balance to the court.
As forecast the previous day, a Gallup poll appears showing the results of a sample of opinion on candidate preference for the 1952 presidential election. The names of 18 prominent men from both major parties were submitted to the respondents, without party labels attached, and voters were asked to make their choice from the list or provide someone else of their choosing. General Eisenhower had come in first, polling 28 percent, with the President and General MacArthur tied at thirteen percent, Senator Taft at twelve percent, Governor Earl Warren at eight, and all others at four percent or less. Senator Taft ran strongest in the Midwest and Governor Warren did well in the West, while the President registered best in the East and the South, where General MacArthur also did well. General Eisenhower was more popular with women than with men, whereas the opposite was true of Senator Taft. General Eisenhower's popularity was pervasive in all regions.
In Oklahoma City, a meteorite startled local residents during the morning when it apparently disintegrated over the city. At first, some of the citizens believed an atomic bomb had exploded, and flooded the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and local telephone switchboards and newspapers with calls.
On the editorial page, "A Rest for Eisenhower" finds that it would be good for General Eisenhower to be able to depart the country after two days of visiting with the President and get back to Europe where things could be normal for him again and not constantly asked questions about his political intentions. His refraining from responding to these questions had caused many to suggest that he was politically naïve, but the piece finds it instead to be statesmanship of the highest order even if not good politics.
Had he indicated his political intentions, then hanging over every decision he would make henceforth in NATO would be questions regarding his political motivation. Without stating his intentions, his potential for becoming president gave him greater stature in NATO. It recommends that the best course for his boosters would be to stop hounding him, as he had problems enough in Europe. It was evident that he would accept a genuine draft by the convention and so the pressure from his supporters needed to be directed instead toward gathering convention delegates.
"Black Is Not White" tells of David Dallin, whom the Christian Science Monitor had described as an "eminent anti-Communist Russian scholar", having explained that Stalin had really wished to help Chiang Kai-Shek in 1944 and so had advocated the removal of General Joseph Stilwell, who had favored the Communist Chinese, and substituting him with General Albert Wedemeyer, who favored the Nationalists, and so in fact, former Vice-President Henry Wallace, when he had gone on the mission to China in spring, 1944 and made his recommendations to FDR consistent with these supposedly Stalin-backed proposals, had in fact taken the Stalin line, and so former Communist Louis Budenz had been accurate in his testimony before Congress, after all, that Mr. Wallace had Communist sympathies.
The piece finds the logic backwards and that if Mr. Wallace had recommended aid to the Communists, by this reasoning, he would not have been following the party line. It finds most disturbing the fact that such an estimable publication as the Monitor had apparently been convinced of this "poppycock".
It wonders how long Americans had to remain in this mire, tied to the supposed thoughts of Stalin and how long until U.S. policy-makers would be encouraged to think their own thoughts rather than first ascertaining Stalin's and then doing the opposite.
"A New Calendar?" tells of the World Calendar Association, Inc., having proposed a new calendar which would have four equal quarters of 91 days each, to make quarterly calculations, signal to the economy, for instance, easier to compare. It sets forth how this was to be accomplished and finds that it had plenty of merit, but also recalls that the Roman Senate had added an extra day to August at the expense of February, and so would expect like treatment by the U.S. Senate. If it ever got its hands on such a calendar, Republicans would likely subtract two days from February, to obliterate FDR's birthday.
"Dark Pony" tells of the American Party out of Wisconsin having submitted a voluminous handout which only mentioned its secretary-general, but stated, optimistically, that immediately upon assuming office in January, 1953, it would accomplish certain designated goals. It finds the optimism refreshing for third parties, and that the problem with the Dixiecrats, Progressives, and other such parties was that they had no confidence.
A piece from the Baltimore Evening Sun, titled "Whose Dream Girls?" tells of correspondents in five different countries having been asked to describe the "dream girl" of his country's average man and having stated in reply stereotypical answers. The German wanted a good comrade, the Swede, a perfect example of domestic virtue, the Frenchman, "sheer femininity", the Englishman, good looks and common sense, and the American, "a well-shaped, long-legged and narrow-waisted" woman also capable of providing motherly comforts.
It suggests that these dream girls were little more than that which each country's correspondent had been told they ought to dream about and, insofar as the British and American stereotypes were concerned, dreams based on girls realizing that sooner or later they would lose their narrow waists and become motherly in later years, and so convincing men that motherly attributes were appealing. It suggests that males around the world start dreaming on their own.
Drew Pearson tells of General Eisenhower having sent a secret report to the Pentagon on October 22 in which he had stated that the European situation was so serious that military equipment for Europe should have priority over military equipment for the armed forces at home. When Joint Chiefs chairman General Omar Bradley had received this report, he went to the President and recommended that he call the General back for personal discussion, resulting in this week's conference. The General had reported that the arms program was going so slowly that no major European army would be complete for about two years. He also indicated that the European allies were far behind in supplying manpower, partly because of the draft being unpopular and partly because few weapons were on hand for use by the drafted personnel, caused by shipments to NATO being behind schedule. The General, therefore, proposed organization immediately of a small, compact fighting force, equipped with all the modern weapons, enough to withstand the ensuing two years until a large European army could be organized.
Military experts believed that if the Russians were going to attack, it would be in the coming year. French pride had caused the French to try to develop their own jet engine, rather than simply using the British blueprints, which General Eisenhower had urged, advice followed by the Italians. In consequence, rearmament was behind schedule, causing the necessity for increased supply by the U.S., which, originally, was supposed to be only a partial supplier of arms.
Congressman Hugh Scott and Senator James Duff, both of Pennsylvania, had recently had
a talk with regard to their support of General Eisenhower for the GOP
nomination in 1952 and had disagreed on strategy, with Congressman
Scott favoring reduction of the pressure on General Eisenhower to
declare that he was a Republican and a candidate and rather stressing
grassroots organization, while Senator Duff believed that if the
General waited too long to declare, Senator Taft would be able to
collect sufficient delegates for the nomination. Mr. Scott indicated
that his study showed that the Taft supporters had overestimated
their strength by about 250 delegates and that the regional
Republican gatherings had shown much more grassroots strength for the
General. Mr. Scott
Stewart Alsop, in Cairo, tells of relative calm presently prevailing in the city but that the informed opinion was that mob violence could erupt in Cairo and Alexandria at any time and that the Egyptian forces and police would be powerless to stop it, the reason for the British having deployed so many troops to the area with plans for mobilization to the two major cities within hours if necessary.
Hatred presently gravitated around the British but could easily be transmogrified into hatred for the Pashas of the country, the irresponsible ruling class which effectively owned and controlled the Government. Thus far, that group had used their authority to squelch all mob violence to avoid that very prospect, but it was questionable how long the small Egyptian forces could do so. The Government of Prime Minister Nahas Pasha had bought some time with the people through the decision to abrogate the 1936 treaty with Britain regarding the Suez Canal and the 1899 agreement regarding joint control of the Sudan, but the Government's promise to oust the British was not capable of fulfillment, and sooner or later, the people would begin to realize this fact and rebel against the Government.
The process of disintegration of the Government had already begun from such groups as the Moslem Brotherhood and the Communists, historically enemies of the Waafdist Party of Nahas. Their call for ouster of the British could not be addressed except through unleashing of the mobs, the Government's worst fear.
Marquis Childs, in Tuscon, Ariz., tells of the booming agricultural and industrial economy of the Southwest being limited only by the availability of manpower and water, both interdependent and necessary to the continued growth of the area.
The manpower pool was across the border in Mexico. The "wetbacks" waded across the Rio Grande in search of higher wages and the employers were quite willing to employ them as they held a Damocles sword over them by the fact that if they failed to perform their job properly under poor conditions and cheap wages, the employer could turn them into immigration authorities.
The report of the Commission on Migratory Labor had reported the previous fall that an estimated 400,000 illegal Mexican immigrants had come into the country as workers and that another 100,000 had, from time to time, been legally contracted to do work through a dispensation under the immigration laws whereby the migrant workers could be employed to harvest the crops. The President, in signing the stopgap agreement, said that 500,000 illegal immigrants had been apprehended and returned in 1950, at great cost to the Government.
The farmers and ranchers demanded the cheap labor supply so that they could produce their crops and fibers, as the Government encouraged.
While the whole operation was illegal, it was freely admitted and tolerated.
The pressure applied to several Texas Congressmen by Texas growers had resulted in a House subcommittee report, proposing much stiffer penalties for employing or transporting illegal immigrants, having been blocked by Congressmen J. Frank Wilson, John E. Lyle, Jr., Kenneth M. Regan and Lloyd Bentsen—the latter to become in 1988 the vice-presidential nominee to Michael Dukakis and subsequently Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton.
Well, today, we have that menacing caravan of potential illegal immigrants moving up to the border and all hell is going to break loose any minute with the "invaders", Muslim tourists and daughter-rapers, whose rocks are to be treated as bullets—and any press conference questions as to the misleading nature of those tweety-bird statements by the "President", fueled by Fox "News", to be treated with disdain and obloquy by the "President", with his intern grabbing the mike of the reporter asking the question, then the White House revoking the press credential of the reporter on the trumped-up lie that he grabbed the intern.
Get rid of this mess, House Democrats. It has gotten old and the national majority have spoken in the midterm House races, notwithstanding Republican gerrymandering. The Senate was a foregone conclusion based on the seats up for re-election this cycle, and any bragging by the Republicans that they gained a couple of seats is to ignore the fact that they should have gained about eight or nine seats had there been a reasonably popular President of their party backed by huge numbers of voters, not, as at present, by a small, vocal league of half-wits. Everybody, except the numbskulls who attend the stupid rallies and carry little signs and wear little red hats, wants this guy impeached. He asks what it is he has done to deserve that. What has he not done?
Let us just start with the same basis on which former Senator John Edwards was prosecuted in 2012 and found not guilty for the fact of failure of proof of knowledge of the payoff, unreported and illegal campaign contributions in the form of hush-money to keep an alleged romantic affair quiet in the lead-up to an election. In the case of the "President", there is no question of the payoff in 2016 just before the election, that the reason for the payoff was to keep the affair quiet, and that he had knowledge at the time of the payoff, as proven by the taped conversation at the time with his lawyer. It is a felony and certainly, as it relates directly to his acquiring the office, a high crime or misdemeanor in the sense of an impeachable offense.
We know. If he goes, we get the other guy from Russia, with love. But we have seen enough of this guy. It is time for impeachment hearings.
And if the partisan Republicans in the Senate refuse to give up their sing-along chorus, well, we have it as another basis for his defeat in 2020. Moreover, the hearing process in the House will at least air out the dirty laundry and provide a check on recurrence of the consistent pattern of lies and winning at any cost. There is, too, always the off chance, just as was the case among seemingly unremitting pro-Nixon Republicans in 1973-74, that some of the stone wall of partisanship will begin to crumble as the revelations pour forth to the American people daily in dignified proceedings before the House, while the Senate majority, in stark contrast, continue to twiddle their thumbs and worry about "invaders" and whether Justice Kavanaugh can look the boy from Louisiana, fresh from the dripping lips of Senatorial interposition and jury nullification, in the eye and deny, deny, deny, while affirmatively asserting his affection for beer, whole beer and nothing but the beer.
Perhaps, even Fox "News" may begin to wear out with the purblind Trumpies who at present refuse to accord reality its due. Every fantastical tv series, after all, has its runs until the scripts finally run dry of fresh material and camera angles, and so it will be, eventually, with Fox News-Entertainment.
Anything less than full impeachment hearings subjects the new House majority to a charge of politicizing the subject of clearly impeachable offenses and sweeping them under the rug for the sake of going along to get along, to achieve this or that bit of legislation, which inevitably will not get through the Senate anyway and, on the off chance it does, would only be negated by future Republican legislation later. Enough with going along to get along. That was not the intended result of the midterm elections. If that is the result, the Democrats do not deserve power. They, too, must listen to the voice of the people who elected them.
It is time for the investigatory hearings in advance of impeachment hearings to begin.
Also, the House should throw to the Senate by the end of January the toughest gun control bill ever proposed or passed in the history of the country and leave it to the NRA-paid gun nuts among the Republican Senators to argue that to death, as inevitably they will do, amid the continuing carnage on the American landscape in the mass shooting du jour.
Knives and other instruments can inflict death, but not so easily on a mass basis as a gun, and at least the intended victims of a knife-wielding madman then have a chance to escape or subdue the assailant. Get rid of the infernal things and the climate which produces easy resort to them by those seeking to die with as big a splash as possible. Provide incentives for people voluntarily to turn their guns into law enforcement, whether legally or illegally owned. Stop their sale at the source, before we all wind up locked up in our own homes, fearful to enter the streets, as if in a third-world country beset by mob violence and martial law. The Second Amendment is not sacrosanct and has been outmoded since the days of frontier society and the advent of National Guards and ready police forces acting as "militias" in every state and every burg. A gun in untrained or inexperienced hands will not protect anyone from gun violence.
We say it again: hunters be damned. The loose interpretation of the Second Amendment be damned. You are living in an unreal world of yesterday. Stop and think. Give up your guns and set the example for the younger and more callow.
The American public ought not be besieged when they go to school to study, to church, mosque or synagogue to worship, or to a place of entertainment, dining or shopping. Yet, that is the situation, as long as guns remain legal. Subconsciously, the population is placed on a constant tension by these shootings, causing interpersonal relations to suffer, suspicions to be heightened, isolation of individuals and potential creation of angry shooters the more likely. The society has become desensitized to guns and gun violence, a dangerous situation. We cannot grieve for unknown victims every day, every week, every month, every year without the shooters winning by dragging us all into morose corners of existence. The victims become too numerous to consider as individuals after awhile.
It all started with ex-Marine "loners" in the 1960's. Maybe with an ex-Marine "loner", it ought now be ended in 2018.
If you have a gun outside your home, whether or not used in a crime, but merely in your possession, and you are not on active military duty or in law enforcement, you ought be liable to conviction for a Federal felony carrying a mandatory 10-year sentence without the possibility of probation or parole, including hunting weapons or any other firearm, right down to the derringer which killed President Lincoln. That would soon stop it.
The Congress has the power to enact such legislation under the Commerce Clause as gun violence has, during the past forty years, caused a substantial impact on interstate commerce.
Congress needs to do something right
for a change, rather than holding up their little pinkies
collectively and studying which way the wind
A letter writer from Purvis tells of a man and his son going to hunt for raccoons with two hunting dogs, and, upon seeing one of the dogs apparently treeing the quarry, the man approaching the tree and upon seeing the glints of two eyes, firing his rifle. It turned out he had killed one of his hunting dogs. He adds that someone had just offered to purchase the dog the previous week for $50. He concludes: "Mister, coon hunters are funny, ain't they?"
No doubt about that.
A letter writer comments on the permissive attitude of the Charlotte schools regarding smoking on campus, finds it to be in furtherance of the willingness "to wink an eye at certain laxities and morals" and assuaging guilt over it by viewing it as "progress". He does not believe in legislating morals or Christianity, that a person's spiritual experience had to be personal, but that the educational experience had a lot to do with what a person believed, the environment in which the education took place, therefore, being important. He favors at least starting teenagers in their formative stage of life away from habits which were physically harmful.
A letter writer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, says that statistics showed that the most intelligent families were smallest in number and the least intelligent, the largest, that children with I.Q.'s of 120 to 140 had an average of only 1.4 siblings, while children with I.Q.'s between 60 and 80 had an average of 3.1 siblings. While all other plant and animal life sought by nature to breed only from the best of each species, the human race, he finds, was breeding from its worst elements. He favors substituting an "intelligent selection for the natural selection of the past" to forestall this "retrogression".
The problem seemed to be in not having whole siblings.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.